U.P. Library
Association is a registered society under Societies Registration Act, 1960 with the
objectives :-

Objectives :

I. To develop library movement with in
the state.

II. To improve the status and services conditions
of library and information science professionals.

III. To generate an appropriate public opinion
for public library law in the satate.

IV. To create reading habit among general public
in the state.

V. To co-ordinate with the Central Governent and
the social organisations in the planning and execution of their policies towards mass
education.

VI. To take all such actions as may be identical or conducive to
the attainment of the objectives of the association or any of them.

History.

The Association was founded during All India
Conference held from April 19-22, 1935 at Lucknow. The Association's first president was
Dr. Wali Mohammed and General Secretary Mr. Fazal Illahi. Due to lack of library
consciousness among working librarians, the Association could not remain active for a
longer time.

Librarians of Allahabad i 1948, decided to revive
the association and elected Col. N. Rahman, the then Librarian of Allahabad University as
President and Mr. M.M. Goswami as its general secretary. The constitution was drafted and
adopted but again it could not survive longer and had to become defunct after sometime.

On 1st September, 1956 in the presence of the,
then Chief Minister of U.P. Dr. Sampurnanand after a gap of seven years, the Association
was again revived and a meeting of librarians was called by Dr. Prof. Radha Kamal
Mukherjee, Ex-Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University and a noted sociologis. This meeting
was presided over by Prof. S.Bashiruddin, the then Librarian of Aligarh Muslim Univesity.
Mr. C.G. Vishwanathan, the then Librarian of B.H.U., was elected as President and Mr. K.
Kumar the then Librarian of Amir-ud-daula Public Library, Lucknow, as its General
Secretary. Since then the Association has been actively discharging its obligations to
achieve its objectives.

STRUCTURE :

The constitution of the Association was amended
from Unitary System of structure to Federal structure as all librarians of the wast
territory of the U.P. State Could not gather togather at one place. As such branches of
the Association was opened in different distructs like Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi,
Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Moradabad, Dehradun, Ghaziabad, Agra, Bareilly, Saharanpur and
Faizabad. UPLA's efforts are currently under way to open branches i place like Deoria,
Gonda, Bahraich, Bulandshahar, Itawah, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnore and Azamgarh. The
Association is governed by an elected executive committee. The executive formulates
policies and programmes to be executed by sub-committees and branches. However, the
branches are free to formulate their own programme.

The Association has more than five hundred life
members and seven hundred ordinary members.

UPLA SCHOOLS OF LIBRARY SCIENCE

UPLA starated a certificate course in Library Science, to provide
training for preparing semi-Professionals and Librarians of small libraries and scools, in
1959. Duration of course is four months. In 1970 Education Department of U.P. Government
took over the responsibility of conducting and controling examination of this course
throuhg its Registrar, Departmental Examinations. At present UPLA has 13 Schools of Librry
Ascience i districts Allahabad, Dehradun, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Moradabad, Lucknow, Varanasi,
Jhansi, Roorkee, Agra, Nainital, Gorakhpur and Faizabad. About 550 students are trained
every year in these shcools. Its branches also organise short tern refresher courses.

PUBLICATIONS:

U.P. Library Association started its publication of Library
Chronicle in 1957 under editorship of Prof. C.G. Vishwanathan but it could not survive due
to paucity of funds.

The Associations Lucknow Branch published Lucknow Librarian, a
quarterly journal. It has so far published 21 volumes, since 1962.

Granthalayee is a bilingual annual publication of UPLA schools of
library science. It contains articles of students interest and activities of the
Association, its branches and schools.

Since 1982, UPLA brings out a bimonthly News Bulletine. It has so
far completed 12 volumes.

A two volumes publication of UPLA Lucknow Branch has been brought
out making update assesment of ajour issues of Library and Informatin Science.